Without Limits: A BWWM Collection of Passion and Desire, page 41
She collapsed against his chest, then laughed. He laughed too as he massaged her back and cradled her close. They were happy... so in love. What a feeling.
“I’m getting married!” She squealed. “I want a nice wedding too, Knox!”
He rolled his eyes and smiled...
Here we go...
“I want it outside by a pool... no, not a pool, but like water, but not the beach. Now I know we need to wait and besides, the kind of wedding I want will take at least a couple of years to plan. I want five hundred people there and I plan to have my colors as gold, blue, and white, okay? I’ve known that for years! I want you to wear a black suit though, and I want you to wear a blue tie and I want a huge wedding cake in the same colors. Oh my God, this is going to be amazing! We can invite all of my family down. If my parents don’t come, it’ll break my heart but hopefully by then they will see how wonderful you are! Anyway, I think I can call Angela Bassett and she can come, too! I just spoke to her last week! She’s such a great person and was really nice to me back when I was a child, too. Of course, everyone from the movie will be invited. And I think we should stay in Florida to live, but maybe like move to Orlando and I’ll just commute whenever I need to go because I like it here to raise a family, you know?”
He tried to respond but she just kept rattling on, and he couldn’t get a word in edgewise. All he could do was rub his forehead and chuckle.
“...and I think it’s best that celebrities not marry other celebrities. The marriages last longer, it seems. I always told myself I’d never marry another celebrity. This is perfect! What do you think of pink flamingos?”
“Pink flamingos?” His brow shot up. This lady is certifiable and I just asked for her hand in marriage. That means I’m crazy, too! “Pink flamingoes for what?”
“For part of the theme for the engagement party! Now look, if you think about it, that’s unique and whimsical and gives off the whole Florida vibe.
“I don’t think that pink flamingoes are really—”
“I believe that we should work together on that because men should be more involved in wedding planning if you ask me... and I also think...” And on... and on... and on she went.
And he kept smiling.
He felt like a million bucks. Things were happening — not as quickly as he wished, but they were happening nevertheless. Life was good.
This woman — this crazy, manic, beautiful genius at her craft — is going to be my wife. She’s going to be the mother of my children. We’re going to live together, under one roof, and build a life as one. I never would have thought in a million years that I’d leave my old life behind and become a family man with a respectable job. I never ever imagined having children. My life was too crazy and I didn’t want to subject them to my mess... but now, all I can think about is getting this woman down the aisle, starting a family, and just... just being happy. I can handle her being gone for a while when she’s filming. I can handle her ambition and she can handle mine, too. We’re going to do this. Together.
Tina was still talking, her mouth moving a mile a minute. He kissed the top of her head as she lay on his chest. Caressing the side of her arm, he closed his eyes.
She must’ve known the magic password because somehow, this lady made her way into Fort Knox. Maybe she broke the door down, like I told her to do... Maybe all she did was whisper my name in just the right way... Either way, she’s in now, and I’m so happy that one day I went outside, smoked a cigarette, and watched a beautiful woman taking her trash out. Neither of us knew what hit us; we are now forever changed. I didn’t know it then, but I know it now...
That was the first swing to dismantle my fortress.
She robbed me of my fear. She stole my inability to believe that I was loveable...
I played an important part in her life, no script required. It was the role of a lifetime... sealed with a kiss and a ring.
Fresh baked apple pie, pulled weeds, and filled tea cups...
Those are the good things that life with my beautiful sweetheart are made of...
About the Author
Tiana Laveen is a USA Today bestselling author. She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, though her soul resides in New York.
Tiana Laveen is a uniquely creative and innovative author whose fiction novels are geared towards those who not only want to temporarily escape from the daily routines of life, but also become pleasantly caught up in the well-developed journeys of her unique characters. As the author of over 35 novels, Tiana creates a painting with words as she guides her reader into the lives of each and every main character. Her dedication to detail and staying true to her characters is evident in each novel that she writes.
Tiana Laveen lives inside her mind, but her heart is occupied with her family and twisted imagination. She enjoys a fulfilling and enriching life that includes writing books, public speaking, drawing, painting, listening to music, cooking, and spending time with loved ones.
Fort Knox edited by Natalie G. Owens
If you wish to communicate with Tiana Laveen, please follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.
www.tianalaveen.com
Highland Jax
A Magical Bite Love Story
LaVerne Thompson
About the Story
After 500 years, Laird Jax Buchannan thought it was time to take a companion to walk with him through eternity. And since this was the modern age, he'd try finding true love through a reality television show. But what he found instead was a witch who put a spell on him.
Serissa Helstrom was a White Witch who on a lark decided to join a friend on a reality television show. Not for one second did she take it seriously, until she found herself falling for a vampire.
Or was he just messing with her mind?
For the men in kilts and those who love them.
Chapter One
Jax Buchannan of the Clan Buchannan squinted behind his dark sunglasses as he sat in the rear of the Range Rover limo. He ignored the cameras mounted within the vehicle to capture every angle and nuance of his reaction for the audience. Likewise he ignored the final instructions Davis Richards, one of the producers, gave him through the tiny mic stuck in his ear. The host for the show “Love in the Highlands,” which changed depending on the city or setting the season was shot in, Love in whatever. This time it was the Highlands.
Davis and Kevin, both humans, stood just in front of the SUV watching the plane descend. Not for the first time, Jax wondered what the hell he, a 500-year-old vampire, was doing there.
The sun sat high in the sky over the land of his birth, and it had only been for the last hundred years or so that he’d been able to stay awake during the day, as well as not be harmed by the sun. He descended from a line of people who followed nature’s paths. His Ma, still alive too, had searched for a way to return them to the light and by the heavens she’d found it.
Heather, grown on most any sunny hillside, was the answer. The blooms were plucked at just the right time in their cycle and crushed with other herbs, then seeped like a tea and mixed with a little of her blood to get it into their system. That’s all it took. But still didn’t explain why he sat in an air-conditioned car, even though he felt neither heat nor cold. Yet here he sat, the star of a television reality show. He winced, remembering the sound of his brother’s voice asking him if he was daft. Probably. But he knew why. It was because of her.
Jax knew better than most how chance encounters could change the course of a life or end it. A few weeks ago he’d been checking on his younger brother Declan, who was in the United States, and had such an occurrence. About to get into his car, he’d picked up a stray thought. Usually he could tune out the thoughts of others, but this one for some reason got through his blocks and appealed to him. Maybe it was the sound of her laughter in his head like the soft tingling of wind chimes as a gentle breeze brushed past them. Or perhaps it was the fact she was willing to try something just for the sheer fun of it with her friend.
He had to meet her.
He straightened up and glanced around, trying to get a glimpse of this woman whose thoughts, emotions, and conversation he’d fixated on. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had fun. The concept for centuries had become entirely foreign to him.
In the beginning, their lives were about survival. He and some of his kin had both died and been reborn on a battlefield. Then he spent years creating a powerbase so he and his family would never fear or want for anything. Nowadays, he merely…existed. Their existence was safe, their place in this new world secure. Yet he’d been restless for a long while now.
Instead of entering his car, he told his driver he’d call when he was ready. After shutting the door, he walked down the sidewalk in search of the source of the laughter in his mind.
Like a beacon, he’d followed the mental connection of the woman whose thoughts he tracked. Not for a moment did he think to reconsider his actions. They guided him to a building with the name of a television studio engraved on the glass doors. Confused, he’d entered the building. There was a guard who looked up but before the man could stop him he stared into his eyes and impressed on his mind he was meant to be there. The guard’s gaze returned to the monitor he’d been watching.
Jax stepped into one of the elevators. The number fifteen flashed into his mind. He pressed the button for that floor, still following the sound of feminine laughter and excitement in his head. When the elevator opened, he’d entered a small reception area but he didn’t immediately see the one he sought. He was sure the mystery woman had gotten off here.
He scanned the mind of the receptionist, but she had the image of several women in her head. The ones who had just gotten off the elevator and another group who had gotten off before. A total of about 15 women. He also discovered why the women were there and smiled. It was for an audition.
“Thank you,” Jax said to the receptionist, and even though she returned his smile, she’d said not a word. He’d taken the information from her mind and placed a similar impression in her head, like he’d done with the guard. He was meant to be there and so he was.
Passing on the right side of her desk, he turned down the hallway and walked past the closed doors of the large conference area. There were about 20 women already seated inside. He could sense the women on the other side of the wall as well as the one whose thoughts he’d followed. Two men came down the hall from the other direction toward him and he scanned their thoughts. As Jax had always done, he’d made up his mind from one breath to the next. Holding out his hand to them, he shook theirs and changed the course of the show.
“You can’t be serious, Avery,” Serissa Helstrom told her best friend.
Avery Redmond shook her curly, blond-streaked locks. “As a bypass.”
Avery loved to watch those medical shows so everything for her boiled down into that kind of terminology. You’d think she worked in the medical field the way she pulled words out of her head. But no, the woman managed a coffee shop in the heart of New York City. She also picked up information in the coffee shop. People loved to talk to her, because with her butterscotch complexion and five-foot-two height, she was petite, pretty, loved conversation, and very friendly. One of those things she picked up was about a new reality show holding auditions and would start filming in a couple months.
“Oh, come on. They’re looking for hot babes.” Avery winked as she continued to wipe down the counter in front of where Serissa sat. “And you need some work done on your place right? Don’t make me do this by myself.”
Avery also loved to try new things and often dragged her along. She’d talked Serissa into trekking across Morocco on a camel last year. Serissa had been thinking of having some renovations done on her loft condo. The closets needed expanding and the kitchen needed venting. Still, getting involved in a reality television show was not on her list of how she wanted to spend her time. After all, she did have secrets to protect.
“I was planning on staying at your place while that work was done,” Serissa hedged.
Avery shook her head. “Nope. You’re coming down to the auditions with me.” Avery glanced at the clock on the wall and pulled off her apron. “We have to leave now to get to the studio on time.”
“There are probably going to be hundreds of women there already. And don’t we need an appointment or something? And besides, what makes you think either of us would be chosen?”
Avery grinned. “We already made it past the first hurdle.”
“What do you mean?” Serissa frowned over at her shorter friend.
“I sent them our pictures already and we got called in for a live interview.”
“WHAT!” Serissa put the cup down in her hand so hard on the counter, her latte spilled onto her hand. Then she began to laugh. It was so like Avery to pull a stunt like this.
“Yes.” Avery grabbed a couple of napkins and cleaned up the mess, then she turned to one of her assistants. “I’m outta here, Fred, see ya tomorrow.”
Fred waved at them both as Avery came around the counter, took her arm, and pulled her out of the shop. “Relax,” Avery continued. “We made it through the first round and now they want to do personal interviews and guess what? I also found out where the show’s going to take place.”
“Avery.” Serissa rolled her eyes at her friend, knowing it was a done deal because damned if she didn’t follow along. “Couldn’t you at least have given me a heads up?”
“Oh, come on. You know you’ve been bored silly recently. If I’d given you warning you wouldn’t have shown up today. And don’t forget, your last tarot reading showed you were going to take a long trip and meet the man of your dreams.”
Serissa snorted as Avery led her outside into the sunny day in New York City. “Yeah, that was almost two years ago. Kinda think it would have happened by now.”
“You know these things take time. Anyway, the show’s going to be filmed in the Scottish Highlands. You’ve always wanted to meet a Highlander.”
“I might read about them, but who says I want to meet them? Hello, of African ancestry member,” she said, pointing at the dark caramel color of her skin just a shade or two darker than Avery’s own. “I should be going to Africa for a safari. Besides, the Highlanders I’d want to meet are long gone.”
Avery waved her free hand in the air. “Africa, Europe, most folks are a blend of both whether they acknowledge it or not. The point is we get to travel and at least spend a week in a Highland castle and have a little fun. All on someone else’s dime. We’ll go on a safari next year, it’s already on my list.”
Serissa laughed. Avery was always very convincing. At first, she might seem practical running a successful business, actually she owned five coffee shops, but loved to work at this one. She was also full of life. It’s why they’d been best friends since high school.
Serissa tended to be more serious and practical even though she created fantasy designs for websites and games but she didn’t live that kind of life. She wasn’t even a gamer. She needed balance in her real life. She lived an uneventful life but for Avery who dragged her out of it. Even as a white witch she was boring. There was no dancing under the moon stark naked during a full moon. At least not in her sect. She merely gave thanks to nature and all things she shared the earth with. She’d do harm to none. Yet, she hadn’t laughed like this in months. In fact, for the last couple of months a sense of restlessness had overcome her. She wasn’t sleeping through the night. Her appetite, while always good, was down to one meal instead of the three a day. She’d even lost a little weight, not that she was complaining about buying size six jeans instead of eight.
If only she could relax, but none of her usual chanting methods or meditation helped. She tried a cup of special herbal tea and cast a spell of peacefulness and calm on herself to help her get a good sleep the last few nights, something that any fourth-level witch should have been able to perform. As an eighth-level it should have been a piece of cake. Yet nothing she’d done worked. Not even the sleeping pills. Maybe what she needed was a change of scenery and a little lighthearted fun.
Serissa grinned at her friend, remembering the day Avery invited her to go to a Wiccan meeting with her. A few years ago, some of Avery’s women customers had invited her to a meeting one day. Avery, free spirit that she was, went and got hooked. Still, Serissa had never confided in her best friend about what she really was. Oh, Avery would understand but it was not something Serissa could explain. There were many things considered higher forms on this earth other than humans. Things humans were unaware of and Serissa was of a sect that wanted to keep it that way. Serissa came from a long line of wise women more often known as white witches.
“Come on,” Avery said, bumping Serissa’s hip with hers and drawing her thoughts once again to the matter at hand. “You know you want to. It’s not like you have a job you have to punch in a clock for.”
All true. Serissa worked online and her hours were her own. Besides, she’d just finished a big project with a nice payday, so she could take smaller, fewer jobs for the next couple of months and any site maintenance she could outsource if there was an emergency. “Okay, I’ll do it.”
Avery grabbed her hand and the young women walked arm in arm, laughing the three blocks to the studio.
